Resources - The Campaign
Don’t Do Nothing! is a campaign that has been developed by young people for young people to highlight the importance of being an active bystander to help prevent harm from happening and what they can do to help someone who may be in trouble or in distress.
This campaign includes videos, posters, lesson plans and a fact sheet - see below
The three main themes that young people in Kent and Medway felt were important to them were bullying, knife crime and inappropriate language or behaviour in a relationship.
Although we highlight three particular themes, the active bystander approach is transferrable to a number of circumstances and situations in various settings that an individual or group of young people may perceive as not right. The active bystander is someone who recognises poor behaviours or attitudes and can take some form of action to prevent further incident.
The Don’t Do Nothing! campaign aims to enhance messaging and inputs for young people, parents and practitioners on personal safety and risk management with topics specifically related to bullying, inappropriate language and behaviour in relationships, and knives. Promotion of why, when and how to implement the Active Bystander Approach has been created to challenge misconceptions young people in particular may have about not reporting behaviours which they think are not acceptable and therefore encourage more of them to be active bystanders with confidence.
The impactful videos highlight three scenarios all of which demonstrate consequences of inaction. Focus groups with young people across Kent & Medway and the use of young actors from the Kent School of Performing Arts helped shape this campaign including its title.
Don’t Do Nothing! brings the message of Step up. Say something. Tell someone which in turns promotes the Active Bystander Approach.
Step up and help a friend who may be in trouble (but only if safe to do so).
Say something to support a friend (they may just need someone to listen to their concerns).
Tell someone like a trusted adult who can help.
The advice is to only do something if safe to do so, and in an emergency call 999.
What is an active bystander?
An active bystander (or upstander) means being aware of when someone's behaviour is inappropriate or threatening, and choosing to intervene and offer assistance or support. When one individual intervenes or supports someone, then others will join in to help. This can create a positive environment where others then feel more able to call out unacceptable language and behaviour and help prevent harm from happening.
However, there are circumstances where it would not be feasible to intervene directly and at no point should you put yourself or anyone else at risk of harm. A framework called the 5D’s has been developed to give information on what a bystander could do to help another.
The 5 D’s
Five ways in which someone can be an active bystander:
1 – DIRECT intervention when appropriate, such as asking if someone is OK, telling them you need a word in private or that the language being used to describe them is not acceptable (but when safe to do so – do not put yourself or anyone else at risk).
2 – DISTRACT Find an alternative activity or think about how you can help distract a friend from potential harm.
3 – DELEGATE Identify the best-placed person to report this to who can safely intervene/discuss concerns, such as a teacher, youth worker or other trusted adult.
4 – DOCUMENT Record your concerns: patterns or frequency to help demonstrate concerns to others
5 – DELAY Use tactics to slow things down. Talk to your friend at key moments to disrupt their response to a potentially harmful situation. Provide opportunity to talk on what’s making them feel unsafe
If you think something isn’t right, or something doesn’t sound right, it probably isn’t. Trust your instincts and remind yourself; ‘the behaviour you ignore, is the behaviour you accept’. Everyone can be a part of the solution and not part of the problem.
WHY BE AN ACTIVE BYSTANDER
The more society knows about the impact of the bystander effect, the easier it will be to overcome. By doing so, we create opportunities for people to invent wise ways to counter the effect and intervene safely to prevent harm and support victims.
The goal of this approach is to provide a platform to change social norms in peer cultures at all levels. Encouraging people to speak out in the face of abusive behaviour before, during, or after an incident. To support a peer culture where abusive or harmful behaviour is seen as wrong and unacceptable.
Ultimately the objective is to provide opportunity for individuals to identify that others in their peer network, more often than not, share their healthy values. Learning how to be an Active Bystander helps to raise self-esteem, improve trusted relationships and the confidence in Children and Young People to make better choices.
The VRU has developed a range of resources for schools, colleges, youth hubs or further education settings to use as topics of discussion about the three key themes and about being an active bystander. Please find below a number of resources that may be useful.
LESSON PLAN
This single lesson focuses on positive choices that young people could make and have made to be an active bystander. It will therefore enhance work on personal safety and risk management or lessons which have introduced topics related to bullying, inappropriate language and behaviour in relationships, and knives.
Fact SHEET
Our handy fact sheet can be downloaded, printed and given out to young people or you can print it to be displayed around your premises to act as a reminder to young people.
Resource Pack
This single lesson focuses on positive choices that young people could make and have made to be an active bystander. It will therefore enhance work on personal safety and risk management or lessons which have introduced topics related to bullying, inappropriate language and behaviour in relationships, and knives.
POWERPOINT
The Don't Do Nothing! PowerPoint has been created for you to adapt and use as you see fit. It has been designed to save you time and allow you to adapt and choose content to fit in with your lesson or display.